It's a week
since the last day of Sukkot
and I've been slow
to take the sukkah down
not for laziness
but feeling a reluctance
to let it go
it was so sweet to sit there
for eight nights
lighting candles
making kiddush
singing in Hebrew
and in Yiddish
inviting in my dead
and all the holy ancestors
the ushpizin
but now the green palm fronds
are dry and brown
time to take apart the loose
scaffolding and lathe
scrape up the candlewax
that dripped down on the deck
put away the ornaments
the birds and beads and flowers
that made the sukkah
seem a work of art
and to savor one last time
in memory
this celebration of the turning
of the year